Wedding Preparation Tips

Wedding Preparation Tips for Canberra Brides!

Throughout my career, I have attended 100’s of wedding morning preparations and experienced countless awesome and not so great planning to make sure it runs smoothly (or not!). It is really important when planning your hair and makeup the morning of your wedding to understand how much time it takes to get ready, from waing up to leaving for the ceremony! So here are my top 5 tips to a smooth wedding preparation!

1) Ask your Hairstylist and Makeup artist for times

An organised hairstylist and Canberra makeup artist should be able to put together a mini timeline when you book them to give you advanced warning to how much time they need. Typically I take 45minutes per person and that includes 5min of cleaning and sanitizing between clients. I usually find hairstylists take the same or a little longer depending on the hairstyle requested. I usually like to add 15min ’emergency time’ every 2-3rd client to ensure I don’t go overtime in case unexpected interruptions occur (visitors, flowers arrive, lunch time, flower girl crying etc). I also highly recommend finishing all hair and makeup at least 1.5 hours prior to your wedding ceremony, or 1 hour prior to leaving for the ceremony. This hour is spent organising little things that don’t seem to be thought of until the big day, talking to visitors who arrive, eating, drinking, getting into a lace up dress (which can take up to 20 minutes sometimes!) and of course your Canberra wedding photographer taking photos.

Make sure you factor in these times when you book, ask your photographer when they want you to be fully ready and stick to a timeline!

2) Hairstylist and Makeup artist in different locations

If your favourite Canberra Hairstylist is only able to do the brides hair at the salon, and your Canberra makeup artist is mobile, this can be done! When creating a timeline, make sure you give yourself generous travel time to and from the hair salon. It is a great idea for a bigger bridal party to go in groups of 3 first then 2 or more after. This will allow the Canberra makeup artist to complete a few bridal party members then smoothly transition to the rest when they return from the hair salon. It is also recommended to book your hair to start earlier rather then at the same time as the makeup artist so if there is a time emergency, it won’t run into your ceremony time.

3) Delegate Jobs to bridesmaids

When the Canberra bride is in the hairstylist or makeup artist chair, this is the brides time to relax! Therefore, it is highly recommended to delegate jobs to the bridal party. Whether it be making some lunch, ironing dresses, baby sitting the young ones – let yourself relax and enjoy being pampered!

4) Have your wedding dress, wedding rings, wedding shoes ready!

Make sure before anything starts in the morning to have all your wedding outfits and accessories out ready for the photographer to photograph. This includes: wedding dress, wedding rings, wedding shoes, perfume, veil, jewellery and flowers. Have your dresses hanging up to flatten the material and out of the storage bags to make sure they don’t crumple. As you are all busy getting your hair and makeup done, you can relax when the photographer arrives as it is there ready for them!

5) Dressing for the occasion!

It is a great idea to make sure everyone is wearing something that is fit for getting hair and makeup done. There is nothing worse then trying to pull a tight tank top over your head after having a beautiful hairstyle done! Kimonos and robes are a great idea and can be purchased from etsy quite cheaply! This way all you need to do is slip it off your shoulders to get dressed. I also recommend if the bride and bridesmaids are wearing a strapless dress to put on the appropriate bra in the morning. Strap marks look awful in the photographs and are very obvious!

I hope these wedding preparation tips have given you ideas to help your morning be less stressful, more beautiful and more organised! With a few lists, delegations and beauty preparations – you will be walking down the isle stress free before you know it!